Faculty Policies Handbook:

4. Policies and Procedures

4.4 Curriculum Changes

4.4.1 Additions to the curriculum of a Department may be approved only when the new offerings can be handled by existing or authorized staff.

4.4.2 A course may be taught no more than twice as a special topics course before begin submitted for approval as a regular course to the curriculum committee.

4.4.3 Curriculum changes in the College of Arts and Sciences shall normally be instituted through adherence to the following sequence:

All curriculum proposals originate at the department or program level and are forwarded through the Dean to the Curriculum Committee.

The originating department or program shall submit all proposals for new or revised courses electronically to the Curriculum Committee Chair and to the Arts and Sciences Office.

The following information, and any other information requested on the Curriculum Committee submission form, should be included in the proposal:

   a. Specification as to whether it is a new course or a revised course and when it is to be first offered.

   b. Proposed catalog description, including semester hours credit.

   c. Statement of prerequisites.

   d. The objectives of the course.

   e. The intended audience for the course (majors, elective students, etc.).

   f. Evidence that the course fulfills a service function, and/or is part of the undergraduate major, and/or is a part of the graduate program.

   g. Evidence that the department or program has the staff to offer the course, that the course is important to the department's program(s) or the interdisciplinary program's offerings, and that the course shall be offered at least on a two-year sequence.

   h. All new course proposals must be accompanied by a syllabus or a course outline.

   i. Justification of any feature peculiar to the course.

Prior to submitting a new course to the Curriculum Committee, the Department or Program is to clear the course number with the Office of the Registrar to make sure that the same number has not been used for another course in the past decade.

Materials for curricular change (detailed above) are to be submitted to the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee. If the change is approved by the Curriculum Committee, the recommendation is then submitted to the Arts and Sciences Council for its approval.

4.4.4 Upon the Arts and Sciences Council approval of a new course for inclusion in the catalogue, the Chair of the Curriculum Committee notifies the sponsoring department of the approval of its course proposal. The chair of the sponsoring department then submits electronically a Degree Audit Form to the Registrar's Office.

4.4.5 The chair of the Curriculum Committee is to ensure that information about any fully approved course revision or new courses is transmitted to Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences. The Office of the Dean is to transmit all relevant course change or new course information to the Office of the Registrar on forms specified. All such information is to be copied to the Chair of the submitting department.

Department chairs, in consultation with the Dean's office, are responsible for ensuring that course descriptions are updated in the Drake Catalog.